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3. Archaeology and John's Gospel: Is skepticism chic passé?
John is known as the spiritual Gospel because, among other reasons, it has extended metaphorical discourses, such as the bread of heaven (6:25-59), and a long, one-on-one dialogue with the religious leader Nicodemus about deep truths (3:1-15).
Until recently, much of scholarship did not take seriously the topographical or historical details in John's Gospel. Scholars ignored them or preferred to see them as symbolic because surely John was not concerned with mundane matters. The more skeptical said that it was wrong in many cases.
So it may come as a surprise to readers that many archaeological discoveries match up with the historical assumptions in this spiritual Gospel. Many scholars now take John's topography and other down-to-earth matters seriously. Archaeology seems to have turned the tide.
This is Part Three on the historical reliability of the Gospels. The series has nothing to do with the inerrancy or inspiration of the Gospels, because if we cannot establish their historical reliability, then how can we move on to discuss their inerrancy or infallibility, as those two doctrines have been traditionally understood? But nothing in this article contradicts these doctrines.
The goal of the series, including this article, is to bring onto the web what scholars say in their books, specifically, scholarship that upholds a traditional view of Scripture. This article also has many links to websites, for further study. The series is intended for the laity, so I use the Q & A format, for clarity.
Before we begin, recall that Matthew, Mark, and Luke have a lot of passages in common, so they are called the synoptic Gospels (synoptic means viewed together). The authors are sometimes called synoptists. Slashes // mean parallel passages among them. The writers of the four Gospels are also called evangelists.
Hovering over the references below will bring up the NET Bible version on each of these. You may create two more windows with a map of Israel and a map of Jerusalem in the time of Jesus. If the links in this article go dead, please type in a keyword in a search engine.
1. How does archaeology relate to this Gospel?
These findings represent others. The most important entry is the last one in this list.
(1) Bethsaida
John 1:44 says that Philip, Peter, and Andrew were from this city that functioned as a capital north of the Sea or Lake of Galilee. (Apparently, Peter and Andrew later moved to Capernaum). Peter and Andrew were fishermen. Archaeologists discovered a "plethora of fishing implements" in a house in Bethsaida, so they call it "the Fisherman's House." Data suggest that there may have been a small industry of making fishing gear, since the archaeologists found a fishhook that was not yet bent (Rami Arav, "Bethsaida," pp. 160-61).
Bible Places has good photos in an article. The University of Omaha has a superb webpage on the excavations.
(2) Cana
Where did Jesus perform the miracle of turning water into wine, not wine into water (John 2:1-11; cf. 4:46; 1:43-45 with 21:2)? There is a tourist shop at Kefr Qana (or Cana or Kenna), northeast of Nazareth. However, since 1998 excavations in another Cana lead archaeologists now to believe that Kherbit Cana, on a hill a hundred meters high, eight kilometers across from the capital Sepphoris, south-southwest, is the town of Jesus' miracle. (But Kefr Cana still fits the requirements of John's Gospel). In Kherbit Cana "in the lower village, halfway down the hill, a cave complex with two in situ stone water pots (and room for four more) was venerated in the Byzantine period" (Richardson, p. 139). He does not say in his article how many gallons the pots could hold (John 2:6 says twenty to thirty gallons or 75-115 liters), but the bigger point is that Cana had storage facilities for water pots.
Incidentally, Josephus (c. AD 37 to post-100), a Jewish historian, mentions Cana (Life 86). Richardson writes: "The Cana of Josephus is no doubt the same site as New Testament Cana" (p. 120).
Richardson, pp. 120-44. New International Archaeological Study Bible, p. 1723; von Wahlde, pp. 538-42. Bible Walks has a brief article and photos.
(3) Mt. Gerizim
Only John mentions "this mountain" ( 4:19). Its identity is clear. Mt. Gerizim was considered sacred to the Samaritans, and it has a stormy history. For example, when Greece dominated the region, they renamed the temple of the Samaritans as the temple of Zeus, Friend of Strangers. John Hyrcanus, a Hasmonean priest-king, destroyed the Samaritan temple in 128 BC. In the fourth century AD, the Samaritans produced a document called the Memar Marqah, which reflects earlier traditions, possibly to the first century. Passages express their Messianic hope, like this one: "Let the Restorer come safely and sacrifice a true offering. The Restorer will come in peace and reveal the truth and will purify the world" . . . . The Samaritan woman at the well asked Jesus about the Messiah, and he replied, "I who speak to you am he" (4:25-26).
New International Archaeological Study Bible, p. 1727; see also Zangenberg, pp. 421-26, for the religious history of the site. Von Wahlde, pp. 556-59, has a short write up on Gerizim and the next two entries in this present article. Bible Places introduces us to the territory.
(4) Sychar
John 4:4-6 says that Jesus came to a town called Sychar, in Samaria. Most scholars identify this town with al-Aschar (or al-Askar or Sakir), which ancient texts attest (von Wahlde, pp. 557-58; cf. Zangenberg, pp. 416-18).
Walking in Their Sandals has a profile of the town. Christian Answers has a few lines about it.
(5) Jacob's well
The patriarch Jacob gave a field to his son Joseph as his portion (shechem) (Genesis 33:18-20). Joseph is buried there (Joshua 24:32). The well is located about 250 feet from the ruins of the town of Shechem, along a north-south road. John 4:6 uses the Greek word for "running spring," but vv. 11 and 12 use the word for "dug out well." "The well near Shechem is just such a combination of dug-out well and running spring" (von Wahlde, p. 557).
Edward Fudge Ministries introduces us to the topic via Sychar (I don't know him, but the one article looks good). This article introduces us to the well via Shechem.
(6) Pool of Bethesda
John 5:2 describes a pool called "Bethesda" in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate. The pool had five colonnades. After a lengthy discussion, von Wahlde writes:
The discovery of the pools proves beyond a doubt that the description of this pool was not the creation of the Evangelist but reflected accurate and detailed knowledge of Jerusalem, knowledge that is sufficiently detailed to now be an aid to archaeologists in understanding the site. The Johannine [adjective of John] account speaks of (1) its location near the Sheep Gate; (2) the name of the pool as Bethesda; (3) the fact that it has five porticos; (4) the fact of intermittent turbulence in the water. All of these details are corroborated through literary and archaeological evidence of the site. (p. 566)
Bible-History has a computer image and a brief write up.
(7) Tiberias
John is the only one to identify the Sea of Galilee as also the Sea of Tiberias (6:1; 21:1), and he alludes to a boat landing (6:1). In addition to the lake, a city near its shore was named after the Roman Emperor Tiberius (ruled AD 14-37). Its population is estimated to have been 24,000, a sizeable city indeed for the region. Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Perea (r. 4 BC-AD 39), moved the capital from Sepphoris to Tiberias in about AD 24 (von Wahlde, pp. 566-68).
Jewish Virtual Library offers an overview. See a short article on the Sea of Galilee or Lake Tiberias. This page has a map of first-century ports on the Lake, with a brief article.
(8) Praetorium
John 18:28, 33; 19:9 mention this place. It had been thought that the prefect, at that time Pontius Pilate, lived in the Antonia Fortress. However, this fortress, nearer the temple, was the lodging place of the troops. At this location, they could monitor the temple. But the Praetorium is found in the Herodian palace. It was situated against the western wall, in the northwest corner of the city. Then the palace extended southward (von Wahlde, pp. 572-75).
Bible-History has a short write up on the Antonia Fortress, stating that perhaps the trial of Jesus took place at the Herodian palace, instead. The page also links to Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Another article at Bible-History has a brief write up of Herod's Palace, with a computer image.
(9) Pilate's judgment seat
In John 19:13, Pontius Pilate brought Jesus to the judge's seat "at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha)." The Aramaic word means "ridge" or "height" or "raised" place. It was adjacent to Herod's Jerusalem palace. The entrance is paved with stone. "It is clear that the section of the city that housed the Herodian palace was indeed not only the highest place in the city but was founded on bedrock rather than on fill" (von Wahlde, p. 572-75). This fits the description of the Stone Pavement and the Gabbatha.
Jewishmag.com offers an article on the discovery of Herod's palace. This older edition of a Jewish Encyclopedia still has good information on "Gabbatha." This short entry by New Advent discusses the optional locations of the Gabbatha, but the article does not seem to be up to date with scholarship.
(10) The tomb of Jesus?
All four Gospels, of course, include in their story about Jesus the empty tomb. But John has a few more and fuller details that the Synoptics do not (e.g. the tomb's location outside the city walls). So the empty tomb is discussed in this article, rather than the article on archaeology and the Synoptics.
Also, this section has nothing to do with the popular claims that some have found the ossuary (bone box) of Jesus. Rather, this Q & A comes from sound archaeology, not sensationalist archaeology that bypasses many specialists, who deny the claims about Jesus' alleged bone box.
Some of the details about the real tomb: Jesus was placed in a new tomb cut out of rock (Matt. 27:60; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53), which was in a garden near the crucifixion site (John 19:20). The entrance was low and sealed with a stone (Matt. 27:60; Mark 15:46; John 20:11). One could sit where the body had been placed (Mark 16:5; John 20:12). "Based upon the Biblical description and upon other known first-century tombs, the tomb of Jesus can be reconstructed as having had a small forecourt, a low entry passage and a burial chamber with benches or 'couches' on the three sides for the placement of the deceased" (New International Archaeological Study Bible, p. 1615).
Josephus references tombs for important people nearby (Jewish Wars 18.104.22.168 and 184.108.40.2060). Tombs datable to the first century had been cut into a rock quarry that was once outside of Jerusalem. Next, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built in 330 AD, retains the Christian tradition of Jesus' burial from the very beginning. Hadrian (ruled 117-138 AD) constructed a temple to Jupiter and Venus on the site in AD 130 / 131. In AD 325 Constantine (r. 324-337 AD) ordered its demolition and found a tomb beneath it, remarkably. The site was an old quarry, part of which was a garden (John 19:41). A quarry had to be outside of the city walls, though the Old City encompasses it today. At least four tombs cut into the rocks have been located, and one of them matches the description of the type in which Jesus was buried. . . . "The evidence points to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as being the actual site of Jesus' tomb" (New International Archaeological Study Bible, p. 1615).
Von Wahlde concludes: "The significance of this for our appreciation of the historical accuracy of John's reports is considerable . . . the Johannine [adjective of John] account contains remarkably accurate knowledge that the Gospel is in fact able to serve as a source of unique knowledge about the crucifixion and burial of Jesus" (p. 582).
New International Archaeological Study Bible, p. 1615; von Wahlde, pp. 581-82.
As for the alleged family tomb of Jesus, this scholar refutes the popular claims that the ossuary (bone box) of Jesus was found. Her article is not written from a conservative Christian point of view or a Christian viewpoint at all. Ben Witherington, a front-ranking New Testament scholar, has a blog on the topic, saying the "evidence" for a family tomb of Jesus is wrong. For what it's worth, I have written an article on the topic.
2. What does all of this mean for the historical reliability of John's Gospel?
Two bloggers believe that the Gospels are theological books, not history books. So why waste our time with the "nonsense" about archaeology and history, as if to prove the Bible? In response, do we need to have such a sharp dichotomy between the history and theology? Cannot both be valid enterprises at the same time? Plus, my goal, contrary to what they imply, is not to prove the Bible (whatever that word means). But my goal is to counter the "nonsense" about the Gospels being infamously unreliable on an historical level. If the bloggers wish to see texts that have little or nothing to do with history, they should read the next Q & A.
It is true that John's Gospel is very theological. However, "the survey reveals no credible evidence to suggest that any of the twenty sites [examined in his article] is simply fictitious or symbolic. While some secondary meaning is possible in some instances, the intrinsic historicity and accuracy of the references should be beyond doubt" (von Wahlde, p. 583).
Von Wahlde goes on to say that sixteen of the twenty sites examined in his article are certain. Then, "of the remaining four, two can be narrowed to within a relatively restricted locale: the place in the Temple precincts for the keeping of animals and the Lithostrotos" (ibid). The last two sites are still being debated: Aenon near Salim and Bethany beyond the Jordan.
The more details an author mentions about a location, the greater the chance of his being proved wrong, especially in texts from the ancient world. However, von Wahlde counters: "Yet in fact [John's Gospel] has done just the reverse and demonstrates the full extent of the accuracy and the detail of the Evangelist's knowledge. It is precisely those places described in the greatest detail that can be identified with the greatest certitude" (p. 584).
John is a spiritual Gospel that has its own stated theological agenda (John 20:31). But the Gospel is also rooted in history because the life of Christ was located in time and place, in Israel about four decades before the destruction of the temple in AD 70 by the Roman General Titus (in that link see an image on the Arch of Titus of the Menorah, and more, triumphantly being carried through Rome).
3. How do these discoveries relate to Gnostic "gospels"?
We can compare the discoveries with all the Gnostic texts, not just the so-called gospels, in the latest edition of the Nag Hammadi collection. We can also include the synoptic Gospels in our discussion, in addition to John's Gospel.
The Biblical Gospels anchor their truths in time and place, in the life of Jesus, who lived in Israel, about four decades before the fall of Jerusalem. It is true that sometimes the Biblical Gospels follow a thematic strategy and sometimes deliberately diverge from or omit the data that are necessary to work out a detailed chronology of the life of Christ. However, we are not talking about mythical Middle-earth in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The discoveries listed in this present article and in Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels and the historical assumptions in the four Gospels correspond to each other and cohere together. And that's good news for the historical reliability of Scripture.
On the other hand, the disembodied truth-claims in the Gnostic texts seem deliberately to distance themselves from the true, real-life story of Jesus, who lived down here on earth in a Jewish context. According to the Index of Proper Names and a count of names that (should) appear throughout the collection, Pontius Pilate, who ordered Christ's execution, is not mentioned at all. Galilee appears only once, the Gnostic text Wisdom of Jesus Christ saying that the Mount of Olives is in Galilee in the north. But the Mount is actually quite visible quite near Jerusalem in Judea, in the south. By contrast, in the much shorter four Biblical Gospels, Pilate appears a little under sixty times in the last few chapters of each Gospel (many in parallel passages). Galilee is mentioned about sixty times (many in parallel passages). All four Gospels clearly say that the Mount of Olives is near Jerusalem.
Further, in all the Nag Hammadi Gnostic texts, Jerusalem is found only sixteen times, and one text says that demons helped David and Solomon to build it (see Testimony of Truth 69-70, 24-70; pp. 626-27). "Gnostic Jerusalem" seems to float, as it were, in the background of a Medieval painting done by an artist who had never seen the Holy City. So his depiction of it is otherworldly or just plain outlandish. But in the four Gospel narratives, Jerusalem is listed nearly seventy times (many in parallel passages). As we shall see in future articles, the Gospels were written by or based on eyewitnesses, so the Holy City is down-to-earth and real in their accounts (cf. Matt. 21:12-16 // 11:15-18; Luke 19:45-47; and John 2:12-16; Matt. 24:1-2 // Mark 13:1-2; Luke 21:5-6; Luke 21:1-4; John 2:20; Luke 21:20). The Gospels never say or imply that demons helped to build it.
The point of listing these names and places is to show that the pseudonymous authors of the Nag Hammadi texts seem to delight in omitting time and place, except for a few ethereal locations and persons, whereas the Biblical authors thought the life of Jesus in history was important. The pseudonymous authors and the final collector(s) of the Nag Hammadi gospels had a tin ear for storytelling, particularly stories rooted in history. Because of the absence in the Gnostic gospels of a basic, down-to-earth correspondence between the texts and history and for many other reasons, we should not at all be confident that Jesus and his followers actually taught and did what is in the Gnostic gospels, though they contain some sayings and traditions that are derivative off of the Biblical Gospels.
4. What does all of this mean to the Church of all denominations?
I have already discussed our reaction to the possibility that the historical assumptions in the four Gospels may not correspond precisely to the historical data outside of the Gospels: Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels (in that link scroll down to Q & A Four). However, the match up between the historical data inside and outside the Gospels happens so often that no one should abandon Scripture if uncertainties remain. Unreasonable critics and fearful believers would be . . . well . . . needlessly unreasonable and fearful, if they did.
I like what Mark D. Roberts says about all four Gospels: they are "Truthful History Motivated by Theology" (Can We Trust the Gospels? Crossway, 2007, p. 121).
Again, the goal of the series is not to establish the Gospels' inerrancy or inspiration, though the facts examined in this article certainly do not disconfirm those doctrines. But I'll leave the doctrines to the theologians.
Here, however, in numerous cases there is a close coherence between the facts inside and outside the Gospel of John and the Synoptics, so their historical reliability is affirmed, quite easily, too.
This article has two companion pieces:
Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels: Which way do the rocks roll?
Did Jesus Even Exist? Can you have an effect without a cause?
References and Further Reading
Rami Arav. " Bethsaida." In Charlesworth, Jesus and Archaeology. Pp. 145-66.
James M. Arlandson. "Jesus Called It 'Israel.'" American Thinker. July 2007.
Archaeology and the Bible. An apologetics website presents an overview of the data. ("Apologetics" means the "study or science of defending a faith or religion.") If a believer must have near-absolute perfection and complete inerrancy in a match up between history inside and outside the Bible, then this website goes a long way to get there. But the proprietors seem to acknowledge that uncertainties remain.
David Couchman. "Real People, Real Places: Evidence from Archaeology for the Reliability of the Bible." An overview article from an apologetics website
James H. Charlesworth. Jesus and Archaeology. Eerdman's, 2006. Excellent book. You may look inside it at the link. Many of the articles are cited in this present article.
Digthebible has excellent links.
"Archaeology and Geography as Related to the Gospel of John." Catholic resources on the Gospel of John
Jerusalem Archaeological Park. Well worth exploring.
John McRay. "Archaeology and the Bible: How archaeological findings have enhanced the credibility of the Bible." Article at a Southern Baptist website
Jerome Murphy-O'Connor. Oxford Archaeological Guides: The Holy Land. 4 th ed. Oxford, 1998.
New International Archaeological Study Bible. Zondervan, 2005. Excellent. Critics of Scripture on the basis of archaeology and geography must work their way through this resource.
Mark D. Roberts. "Does Archaeology Support the Reliability of the Gospels?" He has a photo of the bones of the "crucified man." He also has other articles in the series (go first to this last link).
Urban C. von Wahlde. "Archaeology and John's Gospel." In Charlesworth, Jesus and Archaeology, pp. 523-86. Excellent overview of archaeology and John's Gospel
Urban Simulation Team has a first-rate section on Jerusalem's Temple Mount.
Juergen Zangenberg. "Between Jerusalem and Galilee: Samaria in the Time of Jesus." In Charlesworth, Jesus and Archaeology, pp. 393-432.
Related Topics: Gospels


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AARP Eye Center
Barbra Streisand: A Life in the Movies
By Bill Newcott, April 19, 2013 02:07 PM
One of the great what-if stories in Hollywood history has Elvis Presley turning down the starring role opposite Barbra Streisand in A Star is Born.
Well, although we never got to see an Elvis-Babs pairing (he would have been SO much cooler than Kris Kristofferson), Monday, April 22, brings the next best thing: Streisand on the same stage with the Elvis of presidents, Bill Clinton. He'll present her with the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Chaplin Award in honor of her lifetime of achievement in the movies - an award that has been presented to the likes of Clint Eastwood, Alfred Hitchcock, Frederico Fellini ... and Charlie Chaplin himself.
Streisand's musical career is so legendary it's easy to forget that, even if she had the singing voice of Andy Devine, she would be considered one of the foremost female filmmakers of the past half-century. She won a Best Actress Oscar for Funny Girl and was nominated for another in The Way We Were. She directed just three films - Yentl, The Mirror Has Two Faces, and The Prince of Tides - but they were nominated for a cumulative 11 Oscars.
Interestingly, in her 20 or so acting roles she's only brought her singing chops to a handful of flat-out musicals, among them Funny Girl, Hello Dolly!, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, and Yentl ( A Star is Born has music, but it's not really a musical). The rest of the time she's been either profoundly dramatic ( Nuts, The Prince of Tides) or else the way I like her best, the funniest woman on screen (T he Owl and the Pussycat, What's Up Doc?, and her recent, underrated comedy The Guilt Trip).
It used to be the norm, but these days there are only a handful of movie stars who give the impression they've just descended from Olympus. Streisand is one of them, largely because she rations her personal appearances like Scrooge parts with his coal, and because when she does appear, the attendant publicity is akin to a Papal pilgrimage.
Quite possibly, Streisand doesn't need us all that much. She seems supremely happy puttering around Malibu with her husband of the past 15 years, James Brolin. She has a good relationship with her son Jason Gould - from her eight-year 1960s marriage to Elliott Gould - and even took him along as a duet partner on her 10-city concert tour last year.
And it's not impolite to mention how terrific she looks. My chief criticism of The Guilt Trip, which is now coming to DVD, was that if you did the script's internal math, her character would need to be somewhere in her early 50s. And of course, La Streisand had long since turned the Big Seven-Oh (she'll be 71 April 24). But in the end I had to mute that complaint because, well, just look at her. More than a few newly minted AARP members would love to know her secret.
Well, here it is: She's Barbra Streisand.
Also of Interest
- How to Defeat Space Aliens: A Moviegoer's Guide
- 5 Surprising Facts About Leave It to Beaver's 'Lumpy' Rutherford
- Join AARP: Savings, resources and news for your well-being
See the AARP home page for deals, savings tips, trivia and more

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St. Joseph, Carrollton Manor, MD
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Sacred Heart, Princeton, WV
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Catholic Charities Chapel, DC
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Univ. of MD. Catholic Chapel
St. Mary, Indian Head, MD
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Associates, Inc.
Fine Ecclesiastical, Contract and Residential Interiors
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John L. Hall 240-678-8939
David M. Gardiner 240-678-3506
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Story highlights
NEW: Police hold Nikos Michaloliakos after court appearance
Michaloliakos, the Golden Dawn party leader, is accused of forming a criminal gang
Three other Golden Dawn lawmakers are free pending trial; one remains in custody
They were arrested in a police crackdown after the killing of an anti-fascist musician
The leader of Greece's extreme-right Golden Dawn party, Nikos Michaloliakos, is being held in custody after appearing in court Wednesday, the state-run Athens News Agency reported.
Michaloliakos is being held at Athens Police headquarters until it's decided which jail will house him, the agency reported.
He gave a deposition to a Greek court on Wednesday that lasted until the early hours of Thursday morning in Athens, it said. He faces charges of running a criminal organization following the slaying of an anti-fascist musician last month.
There was a heavy police presence outside the court in Athens ahead of Michaloliakos' appearance.
Three other Golden Dawn lawmakers who have already appeared in court – Elias Kassidiaris, Elias Panagiotaros and Nikos Mihos – were released Wednesday pending trial. A fourth, Ioannis Lagos, remains in custody.
The arrests of the lawmakers, along with those of a number of party supporters, were part of a weekend police crackdown that followed a controversial stabbing death.
It is the first time since the restoration of democracy in 1974, after a seven-year junta, that a party leader and members of Parliament have been arrested.
Pavlos Fyssas, a popular anti-fascist figure and well-known hip-hop artist with the stage name Killah P, was the victim of a knife attack that was allegedly committed by a Golden Dawn supporter.
Kassidiaris denied his party's involvement in Fyssas' death, calling it a "heinous crime."
The singer's death has nevertheless led to renewed calls to ban Golden Dawn, which holds 18 of Parliament's 300 seats.
The Greek constitution does not allow for political parties to be banned, however, and the arrested lawmakers will retain their parliamentary seats unless they are convicted of a crime.
In 2012, Golden Dawn rode a wave of dissatisfaction among some Greeks – spurred by internationally imposed austerity measures amid the country's deep financial crisis – to win 7% of the vote and gain seats in Parliament for the first time.
The ultranationalist, anti-immigration party has been linked by critics to street violence and neo-Nazism.
CNN's Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.


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Over 100 pounds of "bog butter" were discovered in Tullamore, Co Offaly in 2011. This ancient food substance, thought to have been buried as a form of refrigeration, is thought to be 5,000 years old, dating from the Iron Age.
Brian Clancy and his uncle Joe Clancy were cutting turf in Ballard Bog when they made the discovery.
Joe explained: "We were cutting turf and I found what looked like a huge piece of timber…We took it out with a spade and it turned out to be bog butter."
Speaking to the Irish Times, he said, "It looked like a keg or an urn with two handles and a lid carved from a solid piece of wood."
The container has carving marks around the edges with a removable lid with handles and holes, possibly for carrying. The wooden vessel measures a foot in diameter and is almost two feet tall. The 100-pound container was buried seven feet down.
Theories about exactly what "bog butter" is vary. Some believe it was a special type of butter made at a certain time during the years and buried so that it might be preserved. Joe said the butter still has a dairy smell. In the past, some "bog butter" that has been tested has been meat-based.
When the men found the container, Joe returned to his house and researched bog butter on the Internet. He then returned to the bog and "filled a wheelbarrow with the peat and put the keg into it and brought it home and contacted the National Museum of Ireland."
Although it is one of the most common ancient discoveries in Ireland's bogs it is unusual to find such a large quantity of the substance.
* Originally published in 2013.
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Landscape/ Lawn Pests
Healthy lawns and landscapes are teaming with insect life. Yet, very few of the species you see in your backyard are damaging (it is estimated that less than 1% of all insect species are pests). The point here, is that once lawn pests are discovered don't go crazy and spray all kinds of harmful chemicals to eradicate the problem. Broad-spectrum insecticides kill all insects, both good and bad.
One of the first steps to controlling lawn pests (without worry) requires a basic understanding of the insect itself. Knowing the life-cycle can help determine what control measures should be used and when they will be most effective. A common-sense approach to pest control involves using least-toxic methods first — barriers & repellents, beneficial insects, biological pesticides, soaps and oils — with the more toxic (but short lived) botanical insecticides used only if necessary.


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This is the next generation MacBook Pro
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 11, 2012 1:26 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
- Mac
- Apple
Alongside updated Ivy Bridge MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, Apple is introducing a third member of its notebook lineup. This is the next generation MacBook Pro with Retina Display. It's priced at $2199 (8GB memory, 256GB SSD) and available starting today.
Internally the next-gen MacBook Pro features a 2.3GHz quad-core Core i7 CPU (likely Intel's i7-3615QM, turbo boost up to 3.3GHz, 6MB L3 cache). NVIDIA's Kepler based GeForce GT 650M comes standard with 1GB of memory. There's no 802.11ac support, the next-gen MacBook Pro features 3x3:3 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0.
The new unibody shell is just 0.71-inches thick and weighs 4.46-lbs. The big feature of the next-gen MacBook Pro is its Retina Display. Available in one size configuration at 15.4-inches, the new panel is a 2880 x 1800 IPS model. Apple is boasting up to a 75% reduction in glare and reflections. The display is now integrated into the unibody, allowing Apple to remove its cover glass.
The MacBook Pro with Retina Display ships with OS X Lion but features updated apps (Mail, iPhoto, iMovie, Safari) for proper DPI scaling to deal with the higher resolution display. Final Cut Pro and Aperture will also receive updates for Retina Display support.
Apps have to be updated to take advantage of the display, however pixel doubling is supported for scaling those that haven't been updated.
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BSMonitor - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link
Windows 8 compatible?? -
elitistlinuxuser - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link
I don't get why this is a question it already can run Windows 7. So windows 8 shouldn't be an issue -
crimson117 - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link
Details are still fuzzy, but I've heard it comes with Windows ME pre-installed, and if you mail in a post card they will send you a DVD containing a product key that will allow you to download Windows 8 via Steam. -
sonelone - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link
Trololololololol -
ImSpartacus - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link
You win all the internets. -
B3an - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link
Sounds great. Even Windows ME would be better than OSX. -
zappb - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link
Awesome - It looks like full resolution capable as in you should get extra screen real estate, not HiDEF? or whatever they used with the Ipad.
Awesome -
ssj4Gogeta - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link
What does that mean? -
ImSpartacus - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link
Since Apple doubled the resolution (1440x900 -> 2880x1800), they can double the DPI and all the UI elements will be the same size, but be twice as sharp and detailed.
zappb is asking if OSX allows the user the option of NOT doubling DPI. So UI elements are a quarter of their typical size, but you can fit four times as much stuff on the screen.
I know little about OSX, but I'd imagine there's also a middle road of choosing some non-integer multipler (i.e. not 1 or 2) that would yield an "best-of-both-worlds" effect. Everything is a little sharper, you can fit a little more on the screen and it's only a little smaller. The wild card is how OSX deals with non-integer DPI multiples. -
zappb - Monday, June 11, 2012 - link
Thanks for putting it into fluent english ImSpartacus,
Just spotted this on the Apple Store - Configurable to 1680-by-1050 high-resolution glossy or antiglare display.
This suggests that it does run at 1440x900 x 2 instead of actually being able to push 2880 x 1800. Would be interesting to see how Windows treats the resolution.


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You will notice that there is a new color theme for PW. This is to help people understand the changes that have happened and that are happening. Some of the changes have not been entirely clear to people, and we have had a number of people apply for the team recently. Part of that is my fault, for not removing the Help Wanted sections.
We appreciate the support we have received from a number of people since the recent announcements. It seems there is some desire for the site I hinted at and our code. This new site is the first step, but I would love help if someone out there wants to help take PW in this new direction. Since I am working on new things (a new game, shhhh), I do not have the time to devote to PW's new look and feel. Anyone interested in helping organize a new look, new forums, articles, interviews or anything game development related, let me know.
Also, I am in the process of rar'ing up our svn code. It is a huge mess. So much so that I do not feel like trying to organize it. I will break the download into 100mb chunks, but it may end up being a few hundred MB's. There is a lot of odds and ends in there. Many small prototypes and half-finished tools. For those looking for a gold mine of code to dig through, you might just like what you see. Currently, we have more bandwidth than we know what to do with, so I don't imagine that will stop us from posting all this code to anyone who wants it. To answer some questions ahead of time, all our OUR code will be under a BSD license, unless otherwise specified. This should allow anyone to do whatever they want with it. There are parts of Boost and Ogre, which for obvious reasons, cannot take on the BSD license.
Ok, the files are done uploading. Here they are. There are 4 files, all almost 100MB each. Extracted, there is over 800MB of code/files. It could definitely be shrunk, but I don't really have the time right now to do that.
[Edit 2]
There are 2 files, both almost 100MB. Extracted its just about 400MB. Thanks jacmoe for telling me how to strip all the svn junk out.
Awesome, Jerky!
Really appreciated.
One thing, though:
I just exported everything using TortoiseSVN, and it left me with a 413 MBs, instead of 851 MBs with svn stuff.
That's one cheap way of decreasing the size of the download.
I've never done an export before. I was thinking that "clean" should do it, but that does something else entirely . Thanks, I'll upload an exported version tonight and update the posts.


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Good health is life's best gift.
My unique coaching program and personal attention will help you on your journey to optimal health. Together we will map out a plan of simple steps you can take, using whole foods, exercise, and lifestyle modifications, so you can have the life you deserve. Health challenges such as osteoporosis, inability to lose weight, fatigue, bloating, or blood-sugar imbalances may have brought you to me; the good news is, the energy you bring to improving your health has a ripple effect. The positive changes you will make while addressing these issues will flow into other areas of your life.
What are you waiting for? Take charge of your life now!


text:
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All figures come unpainted. This figure is multipart.
Playful Sophie
Sculpted by Gene Van Horne
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From ReaperCon 2009


text:
American-Made, Made Easy
"Hunter's" Oxford cloth shirt, Ball and Buck
If stateside shoppers spent only five percent more on American-made goods, nearly one million new U.S. jobs would be created — that's one way to end a recession.
With this statistic in mind, Ball and Buck founder Mark Bollman has curated the best of the best in domestic menswear for this weekend's inaugural American Field Movement pop-up market. It will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in the South End's historic SoWa Power Station.
More than 20 local and national brands committed to improving the economy will participate in the Movement, including Rancourt & Co., Hartford Denim Company, New Balance, Red Wing, Stormy Kromer, and Randolph Engineering. Food trucks will also be on location, and patrons can enjoy a micro-brewed pint in the Movement's beer garden.
Sneak a peek at the Movement's inventory…
Leather iPhone sleeves and wallets, Bison
Metal and cypress jewelry, LaCrosse Metal Design
"Lawyer's" leather briefcase, Frank Clegg
So take a break from watching the rowers at the Head of the Charles Regatta this weekend, and swing by the South End for some good old all-American shopping.


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LANCASTER, N.Y. (AP) -- At many American high schools, the graduation-day tradition of crowning a valedictorian is becoming a thing of the past.
The ranking of students from No. 1 on down, based on grade-point averages, has been fading steadily for about the past decade. In its place are honors that recognize everyone who scores at a certain threshold - using Latin honors, for example. This year, one school in Tennessee had 48 valedictorians.
About half of schools no longer report class rank, according to the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Administrators worry about the college prospects of students separated by large differences in class rank despite small differences in their GPAs, and view rankings as obsolete in an era of high expectations for every student, association spokesman Bob Farrace said. There are also concerns about intense, potentially unhealthy competition and students letting worries about rank drive their course selections.
Among those weighing a change is Lancaster High School in suburban Buffalo, where students are leading an exploration of replacing valedictorian-salutatorian recognitions with the college-style Latin honors of summa cum laude, magna cum laude and cum laude.
The principal, Cesar Marchioli, said he's neutral on the issue, though he feels for the 11th-ranked student who falls just short of the recognition awarded to the top 10 seniors honored at the annual banquet.
Graduating Lancaster senior Connor Carrow, 17, has pressed for the switch to Latin honors since his sophomore year, well before landing just out of the top 10, at No. 14, while serving as student union president and playing varsity lacrosse and hockey. He said it's a better fit with the school's collaborative and cooperative ideals.
"You're striving for that (honor) personally, but you're not hoping that you're better than these other 400 people next to you," said Carrow.
The view was somewhat different from the No. 1 spot occupied by Carrow's classmate Daniel Buscaglia, who also played saxophone in several performance ensembles and volunteered in his town's youth bureau. While he doesn't oppose the change, Buscaglia expects the competition in high school, although it was mostly friendly, will help him at Cornell University in the fall.
Elsewhere, commenters have peppered news websites with disparaging comparisons to giving "participation trophies" to avoid hurt feelings, while supporters point out the often statistically insignificant differences that separate students.
Rankings still play an important part in aspects of the college admissions process. There are scholarships for the top-ranked students, and the number of top students at colleges is factored into college rankings. Class ranks are also credited with improving diversity at the University of Texas, where a law guaranteed that a school's top 10 percent would be accepted into a public university.
Colleges are adjusting to the increasing number of applications arriving without class rank, though many applications still ask for it if available. Even so, students' individual grades and the rigor of the curriculum they chose tend to weigh more heavily, said Melanie Gottlieb, deputy director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.
"More and more schools are moving toward a more holistic process. They look deeper into the transcript," Gottlieb said.
Wisconsin's Elmbrook School District has for several years ranked only the valedictorian and salutatorian, and only then because the state awards scholarships to schools' top two graduates, according to Assistant Superintendent Dana Monogue. The change has been accepted by colleges and community alike, Monogue said.
"We are encouraged by any movement that helps students understand that they're more than a score, that they're more than a rank," she said.
Tennessee's Rutherford County schools give the valedictorian title to every student who meets requirements that include a 4.0 grade-point average and at least 12 honors courses. Its highly ranked Central Magnet School had 48 valedictorians this year, about a quarter of its graduating class.
The day rankings came out at Hammond High School in Columbia, Maryland, students were privately told their number - but things didn't stay private for long.
"That was the only thing everyone was talking about," said Mikey Peterson, 18, who shrugged off his bottom-third finish and will attend West Virginia University in the fall.
A spokesman for the Howard County, Maryland, district said schools recognize their top 5 percent so students can include it on college applications and hasn't considered changing.
"There was a big emphasis on where you landed," said Peterson's classmate Vicki Howard, 18. "It made everything 10 times more competitive."
Peterson's mother, Elizabeth Goshorn, said she can't walk into his school without hearing good things about her affable son, but worries about how rankings can affect a teenager's confidence.
"It has such an impact on them as to how they perceive themselves if you're putting rankings on them," she said.
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I started this tea cosy in 2007, I think, and it was supposed to be a quick project
for friends of mine who were moving inter-state...and four years later, Voila!!
This is the final item in my 'Mexican Teaparty' series, where I made woollen scarves, garments,
tea cosies & embroidered purses with imagery based on this theme, lots of skulls and flaming hearts!
This cosy is a very simple one in structure. I started with a base of wool I bought from Waverley Woollen Mills in Launceston, and lined it with another layer of old wool blanket and cotton fabric I had printed by Spoonflower with a photo I took in Paris of an enamel 'fire hydrant' sign (Bouche D'incendie), which ties into the friend's new second home in the South of France!
When I rediscovered the unfinished tea cosy in a pile of half-started projects awaiting my undivided attention to complete, I remembered why I'd left it alone for a while (I didn't intend to leave it this long!)- it hadn't been 'working' visually because I'd not put enough colour on it. So I ransacked my scrap bags and found the most Mexican-colourful pieces of silk and linen I could rummage out of the bags and once I started pinning them onto the cosy everything fell into place and I knew how it ought to look!
I've covered all the seams with fancy embroidery stitches and added 'Tea Party" and embroidered in Spanish on one side. I had a tiny piece of German cotton folk ribbon left over from a series of cushions I'm working on now, and this has tied a small brass 'tea bell' onto the top of the cosy.
So what started out as a guilt-ridden rediscovery of a belated and uncertain tea cosy, has turned into a colourful celebration of stitch and textile!
Olé and
beber té más!


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Saturn's Icy Moon Dione Has Oxygen Atmosphere
This story was updated at 10 p.m. ET.
A NASA spacecraft circling Saturn has discovered a wispy oxygen atmosphere on the ringed planet's icy moon Dione, but you wouldn't want to live there. For one thing, you wouldn't be able to breathe — Dione's atmosphere is 5 trillion times less dense than the air at Earth's surface, scientists say.
Dione's atmosphere was detected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which spotted an ultra-thin layer of oxygen ions so sparse that it is equivalent to conditions 300 miles (480 kilometers) above Earth. On Dione, there is just one oxygen ion one for every 0.67 cubic inches (or one ion for every 11 cubic centimeters) of space, but it's still enough to qualify as an atmosphere, Cassini mission scientists announced Friday (March 2).
"We now know that Dione, in addition to Saturn's rings and the moon Rhea, is a source of oxygen molecules," Cassini team member Robert Tokar of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, who led the new study, said in a statement. "This shows that molecular oxygen is actually common in the Saturn system and reinforces that it can come from a process that doesn't involve life."
Dione is one of Saturn's smaller moons and is about 698 miles (1,123 km) wide. It orbits Saturn once every 2.7 days at a distance of about 234,000 miles (377,400 km) — roughly the same as that between Earth and its moon, according to a NASA description. [Photos: The Moons of Saturn]
The oxygen on Dione may potentially be created by solar photons or high-energy particles that bombard the Saturn moon's ice-covered surface, kicking up oxygen ions in the process, Tokar explained. Another idea suggests that geologic processes on Dione could feed the moon's atmosphere, researchers added.
The study is detailed in a recent issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Dione is by no means the only rocky body with an atmosphere in our solar system. Thick atmospheres cover the planets of Earth, Venus and Mars, as well as Saturn's largest moon Titan.
A thin atmosphere on Saturn's moon Rhea — one similar to that of Dione — was also detected in 2010, NASA officials said. That observation and the discovery of ozone on Dione by the Hubble Space Telescope led researchers to suspect it may host a thin atmosphere.
But it wasn't established for sure until the Cassini spacecraft used an instrument called a plasma spectrometer to detect the ionized oxygen on Dione during a close flyby in April 2011, when the probe flew within 313 miles (503 km) of the icy moon. The spacecraft detected an atmosphere made up of about 2,550 oxygen ions per cubic foot (or about 90,000 per cubic meter), researchers said.
"Scientists weren't even sure Dione would be big enough to hang on to an exosphere, but this new research shows that Dione is even more interesting than we previously thought," said Amanda Hendrix, the deputy project scientist for Cassini at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., who did not participate in Tokar's study. "Scientists are now digging through Cassini data on Dione to look at this moon in more detail."
Dione was discovered in 1684 by astronomer Giovanni Cassini, after whom the Cassini spacecraft is named. The moon is named after the Greek goddess Dione, who the ancient Greek poet Homer described as the mother of the goddess Aphrodite, NASA officials explained.
NASA launched the Cassini mission in 1997 and it has been orbiting Saturn since its arrival at the ringed planet in 2004. The mission, which is a joint effort by NASA and the space agencies of Europe and Italy, has been extended several times, most recently until 2017.
This story was updated to correct the density of Dione's wispy thin atmosphere.
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text:
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The Stormwater & Resource Protection (SRP) Division is responsible for the application of established environmental ordinances, programs and policies before development occurs, during construction and after infrastructure is in the ground and operation. SRP implements programs to control storm runoff from development and protects residents, business, properties and County waterways. SRP also develops and implements capital improvements to address damage to County streams and waterways, ensuring they maintain their recreational uses. The MS4 state stormwater permit is also administered by SRP.
SRP assists citizens with questions and concerns regarding environmental management, management of storm runoff and the repair or maintenance of drainage structures, including privately-owned stormwater management facilities. Post-construction technical assistance workshops and grants may also be provided to stormwater infrastructure owners.
The Clean Water Heritage Program was established to equip citizens to make better decisions about actions that affect water quality, and informing them about services provided by the County's Stormwater Program.
Know of an illegal illicit discharge in James City County? Report a complaint here.


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Anderson Stuart, Thomas Peter
From Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive
Sir Thomas Peter Anderson Stuart Kt
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (1883-1920)
Professor of Anatomy and Physiology (until 1890)
Professor of Physiology (until 1920)
MD ChM HonLLD (Edin) HonDSc (Durham) MD (Melb)
Thomas Peter Anderson Stuart was born in Dumfries, Scotland, on 20 June 1856. He was the only child in a middle-class and financially comfortable family. His father was engaged in business and his mother divided her time between her family and various charities. She appears to have been a woman of strong personality who exerted great influence over her son and was responsible for much of the foundation of his character. In later life Anderson Stuart often acknowledged both his debt and his strong attachment to her.
Like many children without siblings, he had a lonely childhood which may have contributed to the development of his rather premature stolidity and sombreness of character. He spent most of his time in the company of adults and thus always seemed rather old for his years. His early education was at a private school, and then at the Dumfries Academy, which he left aged fourteen, to become a chemist's apprentice. He passed his registration examinations at sixteen but, by law, could not work as a chemist until the age of twenty-one. During this hiatus he decided to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh.
Even at this early stage in his life and career, Anderson Stuart showed the foresight and receptivity to information that were to be characteristic throughout his life. Among the subjects permitted for the University entrance examination he chose Greek, German and French; Greek because it would be necessary if he were to proceed to an MD, French and German because a doctor whose opinions he valued said they were necessary to keep abreast of what was happening on the continent. After passing his examinations he went to Wolfenbüttel in Germany to improve his knowledge of modern languages.
He entered the University of Edinburgh in 1875 and devoted almost all of his time to study. From Dr Robert Scot Skirving's memoirs we learn that he was rather unpopular with his fellow students who considered him conceited and 'a swot'. Scot Skirving wrote that 'he took many medals and many prizes, and took the Ettles Scholarship, but he took himself most seriously of all'. He claimed that 'Coracoid' was Anderson Stuart's nickname, from a fancied resemblance of his prominent nose to a coracoid process. [1] Nevertheless Scot Skirving was 'not unfriendly' with him and, some years later, owed his appointment as Superintendent of Prince Alfred Hospital to Anderson Stuart's efforts. Anderson Stuart appears to have had few outside interests and had an aversion for sport. He did brilliantly in all his examinations, coming first in his final year in 1880 with First Class Honours and was awarded a gold medal. As he was attracted to teaching and had been told by his professors that he would make a good teacher, he chose this as his career and was soon appointed Chief Demonstrator to Professor William Rutherford, the Professor of Physiology who was a distinguished histologist. Spending a year in Strassburg (then part of Germany) before taking up the post in 1881, he made a special study of the properties of nickel and cobalt. At this time he worked particularly with Ernst Felix Immanuel Hoppe-Seyler and Oswald Schmiedeberg, two great names in chemical physiology. His training in Edinburgh and Strassburg thus gave him a good knowledge of both Histology and Pharmacology. The material he collected in Strassburg formed the basis of his MD thesis for which he received a gold medal in 1882. In the same year he applied for and was offered the Professorship of Anatomy and Physiology at Sydney University. He was twenty-six years old at the time.
Between the time of his appointment, towards the end of 1882, and his arrival in Sydney in March 1883, he made extensive enquiries about Sydney in general and the University in particular so that he was quite well prepared for colonial conditions when he arrived in Australia. He married Elizabeth Ainslie (Lizzie) in 1882, shortly before setting out for Australia on The Parramatta.[1] After his arrival in Sydney, he began immediately the huge task of starting and building up the new Medical School. The Sydney University Medical School began in 1883 with one member of staff, the Professor, and six male students. Anderson Stuart began with high expectations, and each of the students in this first intake were failed.[1] The Temporary Medical School building was not completed at the time of Anderson Stuart's arrival, and he started teaching before either doors or windows had been installed, so as to begin 'according to my timetable'. On completion, the building was a small four-roomed brick cottage which Anderson Stuart had initially to share with the newly appointed Challis Professor of Natural Philosophy, William John Stephens. In a short time, the Professor of Natural Philosophy moved out so that the whole building was taken over by the Medical School. To the four rooms were later added a lecture room, an injection room and a dissecting room, and these seven rooms comprised the Medical School until the completion of Barnet's Medical School building in 1889.
In the first six years of his appointment, Anderson Stuart not only put the Medical School on a firm basis within the University itself, but also established its connections with, and standing in the world outside the University.
With the drive and foresight that he displayed throughout the whole of his professional life, Anderson Stuart not only began agitating for more staff from almost the very start of his appointment as Professor at the Medical School, but he also very quickly began pressing the University and the Government for funds for a new building. As early as 1885, Anderson Stuart managed to persuade Senate to approach the Government for funds for a new Medical School building. This money was granted, apparently on the understanding that the entire structure would be built out of the funds provided. Anderson Stuart had different ideas, however. He used the allocated funds to lay the foundations of a much larger and grander building than the one Senate and the Government had envisaged. By this clever, if not altogether honest reallocation of Government money, Anderson Stuart forced both the University and the Government to allow him to build a School of a size that he wanted and was confident he could fill. His confidence was not shared by his contemporaries and the Medical School building became known as 'Andy's Folly'.
Whatever views Anderson Stuart's contemporaries may have had of him — especially those whose opinions he had either disregarded or overruled — there can really be no question that his commitment to medicine in general was very great. His determination to secure and maintain a high reputation for colonial practitioners led to his involvement, not only with the Medical School and Prince Alfred Hospital, but also with the Board of Public Health, for a short time with the Sydney Hospital for Sick Children, with Veterinary Science and with Dentistry. His association with the Children's Hospital was not a happy one and the clash of wills between him and Frances Holden, the Lady Superintendent of the Hospital, provided rich material for the Bulletin cartoonist of the time. Even this, however, was grist to his mill. It kept Anderson Stuart before the public eye and in the very process of lampooning him, it served to emphasize his integrity as well as his rigidity. He was nicknamed 'Andy' by the undergraduate students, who were aided by his carefully constructed blackboard diagrams and inspiring lectures. Soon after his arrival in Sydney he established the Sydney University Medical Society for students.[1]
During his lifetime, Anderson Stuart succeeded in creating one of the largest and most important medical institutions in the Empire outside Britain. This he succeeded in doing because the establishment of the Medical School was for him a major aspect of his existence, even to the point of intruding upon and detracting from other aspects of his life. From about 1890 Anderson Stuart began expanding his interests into the wider sphere of University and community activities. He published nothing further of note other than public addresses and general reviews. Of the extraordinary range of the activities he now undertook, only a few need to be mentioned here, sufficient only to indicate the toll they must have taken of his time and energy. From 1893 until 1896 he held the dual appointments of Medical Adviser to the Government and President of the Board of Health. He resigned the Presidency only when the Public Service Board ruled that the appointment should be full-time, but he continued as a member of the Board for the remainder of his life. From 1883 Anderson Stuart had been a member of the Board of Directors of the Prince Alfred Hospital and in 1901, he became the Chairman of the Board, a position he held until his death in 1920. Within the University he was largely responsible for the establishment of the Department of Dentistry in 1901, and in 1905 he became the first President of the United Dental Hospital. He also played a prominent part in the establishment of the Department of Veterinary Science in 1909. In addition, he was President of innumerable community organizations: the Highland Society of NSW, the NSW Zoological Society (which controlled the zoo), the British Seamen's Guild, the British Immigration League of Australia, the Civil Ambulance and Transport Brigade, and numerous others. He was also Deputy Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of NSW and even Patron of the Double Bay Pastime Cricket Club. He became an obsessive, even a compulsive, organizer.
It is commonly assumed that those who are highly successful as organizers would be equally successful had their energies been directed towards research. Be that as it may, Anderson Stuart gave relatively little of his time to the Department and, by not actively participating in research, failed to give the Department the intellectual leadership it needed. His research was limited to studies of the workings of the larynx and epiglottis, and the eye.[1] On the other hand it was undoubtedly the breadth of his activities that gave him access to, and influence over, people in positions of power in University, Government and community circles. Without these activities he would probably not have been able to establish the Medical School as swiftly and effectively as he did.
His marriage to Elizabeth Ainslie was not a happy one and ended tragically with her early death in 1886.[1] His second marriage was in 1894 to Dorothy Primrose, a relation of Lord Rosebery.[1] This presented more of the external trappings of success though it was typically Victorian in its pattern. They had four sons: Archibald, Bouverie, Alexander and Anson. Two of his sons, Archibald Primrose Anderson Stuart (MB BS 1921) and Bouverie Primrose Anderson Stuart (MB BS 1923), followed him into medicine. Bouverie recollects Anderson Stuart as a strict and rather distant figure whose communications with his children were largely through his wife as intermediary.
According to Scot Skirving, Anderson Stuart discovered a lump in the abdomen while in the bath early in 1919. Although his life-long relationships with doctors Robert Scot Skirving and Alexander MacCormick had not always been amicable, they were still his friends, perhaps his truest friends, and they did what they could for him in his last days. After laparotomy, MacCormick and Scot Skirving realized that the tumour was inoperable and all they could do was close him up and drain his frequently recurring ascites. Scot Skirving wrote that Anderson Stuart accepted his fate with resignation and dignity and traversed his via dolorosa, which lasted eleven months, with fortitude and consideration for others. 'No act of his life,' wrote Scot Skirving, 'became him so well as the manner of his leaving it. I remember seeing him just before the finish, and he spoke to me in the vernacular of many things, mostly of a consciousness of having failed in life…He, in the scientific life and future of medicine and its ancillary sciences in New South Wales, played the part of Moses on Pisgah, while many Joshuas, mostly lesser folk, in and out of laboratories, entered into a promised land of new learning which he had visualised from afar, but alas, failed to find himself.'[1] Anderson Stuart requested that all his personal papers be destroyed upon his death. As he was dying, he dictated his memoirs to William Epps, who in 1922 published his biography.[1]
Anderson Stuart's death on 29 February 1920 cut short a life of high public achievement. His last lecture in 1919 was attended by his son, Bouverie, then a third-year medical student, who used to act as his father's chauffeur for their trip home. On this occasion the students, having sung and stamped through the lecture period, attached ropes and pulled the family Buick from the University down as far as Broadway. It was a very human tribute to a man who, even in his own lifetime, had taken on the somewhat cold and aloof stature of founder and prominent public figure. He was survived by his wife and four sons.
His name is extensively commemorated in the University. The Barnet-Vernon-Wilkinson Old Medical School building is now called the Anderson Stuart Building (since 1960), particularly appropriate since his Arms and the initials AS (on a stone boss) are carved on the façade above the main (eastern) entrance; a carved raven, perched on a broken string course surmounting the gable window may also be intended to recall the Dean. In addition, his escutcheon is to be seen in stained glass decorating the south entrance and the crest from his Arms, a single-masted galleon with furled sails and four sets of oars, together with his motto, En Avant, is carved in stone, high up on the western end of the north range of the building. A medical research Fellowship awarded by the Faculty also bears his name as does a splendid portrait of him by Sir John Longstaff. In Prince Alfred Hospital a marble bust of him, side by side with Sir Alfred Roberts, stands in the entrance hall of the main administration building. During his lifetime he had received many honours including an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Edinburgh (1898), an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Durham (1912) and a Doctorate of Medicine ad eundem gradum from the University of Melbourne (1912). He was created a Knight Bachelor in 1914 in recognition of his distinguished service to medicine.
Webb, N. and Young, J. A. "Anderson Stuart and the Medical School" in Young, J., Sefton, A., Webb, N. (1984), Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine, Sydney University Press, Sydney, pp. 171-198.
Citation: Mellor, Lise and Witton, Vanessa (2008) Stuart, Thomas Peter Anderson. Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive, University of Sydney.
An alternate version appears in: Young, J A, Sefton, A J, Webb, N. Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine, (1984) Sydney University Press for The University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine.


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Editor's note: John Prendergast co-founded Enough, a project to end genocide and crimes against humanity, at the Center for American Progress, a think tank that says it is dedicated to "progressive" policy. Prendergast was director of African affairs at the National Security Council and special adviser at the State Department during the second Clinton term. He is co-author with actor Don Cheadle of the bestseller, "Not on Our Watch."
John Prendergast says leadership by the administration can help protect civilians in Central Africa.
(CNN) -- In addition to Iraq and Afghanistan, President Obama has inherited another military challenge started by his predecessor. This off-the-radar drama is unfolding under the forest canopy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Its consequences could end up becoming deadlier than the two better-known cases, unless the Obama administration demonstrates the leadership of which it is capable.
With U.S. planning and logistical support, central African governments have recently joined forces to hit two very large hornet's nests. These military offensives have not achieved their purported objectives, but they have already had severe impacts on the civilians caught in the crossfire.
The two hornet's nests are two central African militias that most Americans have never heard of: the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, known as the FDLR.
For over 15 years, these militias have committed some of the world's worst human rights abuses with near total impunity for their actions. The LRA is a Ugandan militia specializing in the abduction of children to be used as soldiers and sex slaves. The FDLR, whose leadership contains some of those responsible for Rwanda's genocide in 1994, uses mass rape as its war tactic of choice.
Political deals among central African governments, which the U.S. helped broker, led to the joint U.S.-supported military operations against both of these groups, which are now coming to an end despite having perhaps only made matters worse. In the case of the LRA, regional governments cooperated in planning an attack on the LRA's headquarters in a Congolese game park late in 2008. However, advance warning and poor execution gave the LRA leadership time to escape.
The LRA has since proceeded to carry out a trademark killing and abduction spree. In the absence of any plan to protect civilians, and now that the military operations are ending, the LRA has brutally murdered nearly 1,000 people since December and driven perhaps 200,000 people from their homes in both Congo and southern Sudan.
In the FDLR's case, the Rwandan and Congolese governments struck a deal in January that allowed Rwanda's forces to enter Congo and undertake operations with Congolese soldiers against the FDLR.
Again, no provisions were made for the protection of civilians, despite the FDLR's long and brutal track record of attacking defenseless communities when provoked. The United Nations peacekeeping force in Congo was not involved in the operation.
Now that Rwandan forces have withdrawn, the FDLR is systematically raping women and girls. About 160,000 people have been displaced so far by the FDLR's reprisals, but that is the tip of the iceberg.
Although it is encouraging that regional governments have taken responsibility to challenge these insidious forces, the strategies employed to date have made the human rights and humanitarian crises even worse.
Military force should be only one component of more comprehensive strategies to deal with the militias. First, strong U.S. diplomatic engagement is essential in shaping a larger peace strategy for central Africa. Naming a special envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa, to deal multilaterally with these overlapping issues, would be a step forward.
Second, the U.S. must help finish the job it started and support the apprehension of the leadership of the LRA and FDLR. A Congolese bishop pleaded that the world should not leave, now that a wounded lion has been unleashed. He is right. If the U.S. washes its hands of these efforts now, the threats to civilians will be higher than before.
Third, the U.S. should work with regional governments and U.N. forces to better protect civilians. It is a major challenge to deploy regional government and U.N. forces in ways that maximize civilian protection in the forests of the Congo, but it is not impossible.
Many more things have to occur, such as building the capacity of the Congolese state, undertaking army reform, pressuring international supporters of the FDLR and LRA, supporting International Criminal Court efforts to introduce accountability, and dealing with the "conflict minerals" that fuel violence in Congo and power our cell phones and laptops.
Certainly, the LRA and FDLR are incorrigible militias responsible for some of the worst human rights atrocities of the last half century, and the responsible use of international military force is a required part of their neutralization. But a comprehensive peace strategy is needed for central Africa, of which military tools are only one component. The new Obama administration has a real opportunity to help end the reign of terror of two of the biggest human rights offenders of our time.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Prendergast.
All About Democratic Republic of the Congo • Uganda • Rwanda • United Nations


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BIRTHSTONESHere are the modern (listed first) and traditional birthstones, and in some cases their commonly recognized substitutes. Also listed are some values each stone represents. Click on the month name or gemstone name for additional information regarding that birth stone; click on the
Birthstones tend to be a very personal choice, even to the point that people who don't like the color of their true birthstone will find any excuse to claim another. For example, the true November birthstone is citrine or golden topaz, yet many people choose blue topaz even though that lovely blue color is the result of treatment of a golden or colorless natural topaz crystal. Note that blue sapphire is the traditional color for September. But sapphires come in every color of the rainbow (except hues of red which are given the name ruby), as do tourmalines and even diamonds. Garnet, usually thought of as a red birthstone, actually is available in a variety of colors including orange, green, and even the lovely deep purple color of grapes. Tanzanite became an official December birthstone on October 30, 2002, in the first revision since 1912 to the birthstone list maintained by the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA). Also see the Stones of the Seasons, and the Weekday Stones. For the "sign stones" which are based upon the astrological signs (constellations) of the Zodiac, see Zodiac Birthstones. For the "stones of the Bible", see Biblestones. Also see Anniversary Gift Ideas for a list of appropriate gemstones for any anniversary. |


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Ages 6 to 14
During Create and Play After School programs, it's all about bringing out the best in your child. Whether he or she chooses to nurture their inner scientist, artist, teacher, doctor, CEO, or all of the above, we give our guests the freedom to follow her curiosity and passion!
In our new curriculum, your child's interests will shape what we explore, and at the same time they will be developing skills that will help create a solid foundation for learning and growth.
Activities That Help Your Child Grow
Fun activities play a big role in how your child will develop critical skills while at Create and Play Camps. It may just feel like playing to your child because our activities are video game based, but what's really happening is learning that will last a lifetime! The activities in our curriculum focus on key developmental domains in STEAM.
STEAM activities (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) give your child the freedom to discover, create, and tinker. Your child will be given problems to solve as well as questions and real-life scenarios to think about so she can learn more about the world around her!
Example Activity: In Minecraft, our "Building Houses" program reinforces STEAM skills by encouraging children to create, take apart, and explore.
Our after school programs mirror our week-long summer programs meaning a portion of their daily time will be "Creating" or learning and only after learning, homework and some basic physical activity they will also be able to "Play"
And There's More!
Homework Help: Whether it's a science project, spelling test, or book report, if your child needs to utilize their after school time to work on homework, our counselors will monitor your child in completing homework—which frees up time in the evenings for you to be together as a family.
Daily Fitness: Because of our location inside the 80,000 sq.ft. Indiana Pacers Athletic Facility, we help children develop healthy bodies and encourage proper nutrition through daily physical activity
Afraid your child has too much Screen (computer/game) time?
Pediatricians and teachers caution against too much screen time because when kids sit themselves in front of the TV, it's a passive activity. Many children are content to give screens their attention for hours at a time. This contributes to childhood obesity and fails to engage their minds in a meaningful way, leading them to stagnate and be less sociable. We either need to find a way around the screen time kids enjoy so much, or find a way to make it work for kids rather than against them.
We created the Create and Play program to tackle this problem. We saw that our own children were screen-obsessed as soon as they came home from school and started playing video games before doing homework. We knew that if we couldn't find a way to bridge education with their passion for technology, then there would be little hope that they'd grow up to take advantage of our digital age.
The current generation of kids are native-technology users. They are comfortable with it in a way that we might never be. Why not meet them where they are to combine the technology they love with important skills-learning and education?
Thankfully, we realized that quality screen time makes all the difference.
The difference between passively enjoying screen time, like watching TV, and playing puzzle-solving games on a tablet, building in an interactive multi player game, or meeting new friends with a console game is wonderful. From these games your child can learn engineering, coding, design, architectural, and math skills that they'll carry with them into adulthood.
At Video Game Palooza, we know that quality screen time not only teaches your children valuable skills and can keep them moving, but they'll also enjoy it! When quality screen time is paired with regular exercise breaks, you can be assured your child doesn't become a zoned out, moody brat.
When your child participates in the Create and Play after school program, they get the opportunity to play with and learn with other kids using the newest technology including the latest in STEM education and of course, computer games that will stimulate their mind!
Is Your Child Getting Enough physical exercise?
According to the CDC child obesity rates have more than doubled over the last thirty years. For adolescents those numbers have quadrupled! It's so easy for kids to come home from school and either plop themselves in front of the TV or sit down to do homework for hours. They fall into a sedentary rut with this routine and are setting themselves up to become a statistic.
We saw the same trends in our children, which is why when we started developing the theories that would eventually become Video Game Palooza and Create and Play, we knew that exercise would have to be a key part of the equation.
At Create and Play, we promote physical exercise as much as we do healthy screen time. There's no denying that staring at a screen for hours at a time can put a strain on the eyes and cramp up a body. Our solution to this problem is exercise breaks!
Exercise breaks are exactly what they sound like—exercise breaks. They break up the screen time that's sedentary with physical activity, whether that be a simple series of stretches, a dance party, interactive console games, or vigorous sessions on one of our basketball courts in the Indiana Pacers Athletic Center.
We also have an optional Fitbit incentive program in which children can enroll. Record the number of steps your child takes every day and they can earn special game time, rewards, and special privileges.
We ensure that your child's afterschool experience is balanced and fuels their innate curiosity.
Is your Child a Gamer?
Great! We love gamers at Create and Play! They already know how great video games are. But if we ask you to picture a gamer in your mind, the image that might come to mind is based on a lot of unflattering stereotypes, right? Society has a twisted idea of what gamers are—lazy, lives at home, plays violence-saturated games…the list goes on. But like most stereotypes, exaggeration and caricature have created an image that is false. When gamers balance healthy screen time with physical activity and games that mentally stimulate them, their potential is endless.
When we started Video Game Palooza we sought to create an environment that would take advantage of our children's passion for games and nurture it. The first step was finding games that were entertaining, but that also gave players skills that transfer into real life.
Not all games are created equal. There's a huge difference between a first-person shooter game and a first-person puzzle game like Portal. One is violent and one presents the player increasingly complex puzzles to solve that promotes creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.
Another example: Minecraft. It's called a sandbox game because, like a sandbox, the possibilities are limited only by the limits of your imagination. It reinforces many valuable skills without children even realizing it—math, architecture, design, economics, engineering. We've seen our students work together to build entire cities from the ground up. The teamwork and creativity Minecraft encourages is boundless, which is why we use it as a core teaching tool to reach kids where their interests are and give them the skills they will need as adults.
Create and Play provides an environment that encourages productive gaming passions, healthy screen time, and physical activity to foster a new generation of gamers. It's these gamers that will become the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg.
From Minecraft to Portal and beyond, the educational opportunities games offer children is limitless. Whether our students are playing Minecraft on our private server or solving complex puzzles with another interesting game, we will make sure they do so in a way that will make sure they grow into good digital citizens.


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Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to condemn in the strongest possible terms the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.
As a Member of Congress, I express my condolences to the government of Serbia and Montenegro and to the family of the late Prime Minister. Mr. Djindjic was one of the driving forces behind the extradition of Slobodan Milosevic to the Hague for war crimes, and also favored increased political and economic cooperation with the West.
Mr. Speaker, I think it is our responsibility to encourage the government of Serbia and Montenegro to hold all of those responsible for the assassination accountable and to continue their work for economic reform and full cooperation with the War Crimes Tribunal, including the turning over of those indictees who still remain at large and cooperation on the witnesses and the information that is needed.
Again, Mr. Speaker, we offer our condolences to the family.